


polish

by WannabeMarySue



Series: voltron: coping mechanisms [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coping Mechanisms, Fluff, Found Family, Functional Poly Relationship, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Nail Polish, PTSD, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, and also Keith avoiding talking about his feelings by having sex, i just want all the paladins to feel pretty, paladins learning how to talk about their feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 23:42:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7734361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WannabeMarySue/pseuds/WannabeMarySue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance is very good at painting nails.</p><p>or</p><p>It's Lance's turn to teach the paladins about coping mechanisms.</p><p>or </p><p>a gratuitous nail polish fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	polish

**Author's Note:**

> I am continuing this series, because I just want the paladins to feel pretty and happy. that's it. also, this whole fic was fueled solely by reese's pieces and my 100 bottle collection of nail polish lmao

Lance corners Hunk first. But  _ corners _ is a rather strong word, when Hunk all but throws himself on Lance’s bed and thrusts his hands in his friend’s face.

Back during a time that felt decades ago, but was really just months, according to Pidge, Lance had used to paint his nails. They were every color under the sun, usually changing with his mood. When you have a family as sprawling as Lance’s, you pick up a thing or two from your cousins. Lance’s older sister had taught him how hotwire a car and make Everything Casserole at three am; Anita, his favorite cousin had been the one to teach him how to paint his nails, when he was very young. 

Admittedly Anita had an ulterior motive in teaching him the art of nail painting: she was more often than not the one stuck babysitting Lance’s excitable 6 year old self, and she figured that she might as well get some use out of him.

Lance had always been a family-centered person and painting his nails at the Garrison made him a little less homesick. 

The habit had stuck with him in space.

Finding a paint suitable (and non-toxic) enough for nails had proven tricky, but Coran had really pulled through, providing a variety of colors, and even several glitter finishes.

Everyone missed home. Earth, despite its setbacks, held the paladins loved ones, who were now nothing but cherished memories for the foreseeable future. They all dealt with it differently. For Hunk, Lance was the closest thing to home that he had. They had grown up playing together. Got into the Garrison together. Survived this space-hell together. And Hunk was always the one comforting Lance, because that beanpole was just about the most codependant guy he knew, but tonight, Hunk needed a little TLC, and Lance knew just how he liked it. 

They sat cross-legged, crowded onto Lance’s bunk, a bright summery yellow polish balanced on Lance’s knee. He held Hunk’s hand in his, steadily painting his fingernails. They were quiet--the kind of comfortable silence that only falls between two people who truly understand each other on the deepest level.

Lance finished Hunk’s left hand, blew on the nails a little, kissed his palm, and then carefully placed the still tacky hand on Hunk’s knee to finish drying. He repeated the process. 

He could share this coping mechanism. 

He knew Hunk missed the sun, missed playing outside with his baby sister, missed helping his mother in the garden. 

So yellow nails it was.

And it helped. 

At least a little bit.

.

It had been a surprise that the next person to ask him was Shiro. The asking wasn’t always verbal or direct, but actions and emotions have always hit Lance a little harder than any words could.

Lance and Pidge had ended up in Shiro’s bed that night, mostly because neither of them really new how to value a good night’s sleep. Coran had gotten Lance hooked on Altean daytime soaps, and he had a bad habit of staying up all night marathoning them. Pidge, on the other hand, if left undisturbed, would stay up all night working, much to Shiro’s chagrin.

Their leader had picked up the habit of roaming the ship before bed and picking up any stray paladins. Both Lance and Pidge had found themselves swept up into Shiro’s arms and carried off to his bed.

The next morning, Pidge was up early, off to go continue their work. Normally, Shiro was up and training as soon as possible, but he didn’t have the heart this morning to untangle himself from Lance, and to be honest, he didn’t really want to. 

He had been gone from Earth for over a year now, and though he had left few people behind, he still missed his old life--a simpler time.

Spooned up to Lance’s back, curled around him, protective and half-asleep, Shiro felt just a little closer to home.

When the two of them eventually talked themselves into rolling out of bed and starting their day, Lance turned to Shiro and said, “Stay Gold.”

Shiro did a double take. 

“What?”

“It’s a quote... _ The Outsiders? _ ”

Shiro shrugs.

“Earth has failed you,” Lance jokes, heading into the bathroom, but he doesn’t miss the look in Shiro’s eyes--the look that says: Earth can never fail me; I can only fail Earth.

Shiro’s a martyr like that, so Lance takes him aside after lunch that day, pulls out his glitteriest gold polish and recites the old Frost poem, slowly and quietly.

_ “Nature’s first green is gold” _

__ and Shiro pictures Pidge, sitting hunched and cross-legged on the floor, ink smudged across their face and a half-assembled robot clutched tight in their arms

“ _ Her hardest hue to hold” _

and Keith is there, recklessly loyal, stubbornly beautiful

_ “Her early leaf’s a flower” _

__ and Lance, sitting in Shiro’s lap, painstakingly painting his nails, soothing voice washing over Shiro, because he is filled to the brim with misplaced love

_ “But only so an hour _

__ _ Then leaf subsides to leaf” _

__ and finally Hunk, solid, steady, wondrous Hunk who always has a moment to hold you steady, to keep you from shaking apart.

Shiro nuzzles his face into Lance’s neck, earning him a reprimand from Lance as he struggles to keep Shiro’s nails from smudging. Lance shushes his leader and finishes the poem, voice dripping the words at Shiro’s feet, leaving them for the Black Paladin to do with them what he will.

_ “So Eden sank to grief, _

__ _ So dawn goes down to day. _

__ _ Nothing gold can stay.” _

.

Lance manages to pin Pidge down that evening, a matte forest green polish clutched tight in his hand. 

He had Hunk teach Rover how to play old Altean classics, and though the music tended to err more on the side of cacophonous than soothing, when played softly, it was enough of a background lull to seep into Pidge’s worn, drawn-up muscles.

And Lance is there to catch Pidge, just like he has been doing since Matt disappeared (was taken). Amongst scattered wires and bits of metal they sit, Lance wiping away Pidge’s tears, because crying is  _ good _ and healing, and Pidge has too much anger and bitterness bottled up inside for anyone that small.

Lance tells them that, and Pidge laughs through the tears, half-heartedly punching at Lance’s arm. He catches their hand, settling it on his thigh as he shakes up the polish. 

They go to dinner together, Pidge’s eyes still ringed in red and their fingernails painted perfectly. 

.

Keith proves the hardest to pin down, which surprises absolutely no one, but still annoys Lance enough that he resorts to chucking several of his precious nail polishes at the Red Paladin, which he regrets immensely when Keith slices open his favorite blue glitter polish.

Keith had always been the hardest to figure out--what exactly had he left behind on Earth? No family to speak of, an old cabin in the middle of a desert used only to track the Blue Lion, Keith’s only friend had been Shiro. And the Red Paladin proved exceptional at avoiding talking about his emotions. Everyone had tried.

Hunk usually had the most luck with comforting people, so he had picked up Keith (literally) one day when he his biting remarks aimed at Lance had taken on a desperate edge and walked him to a secluded sitting room. They had cuddled on the couch, Hunk’s intent to create a safe space for conversation. Keith had gone with a more physical route. Very little talking ended up happening.

And it had gone much the same with everyone else. 

Pidge had tried. Shiro, Lance (several times, but everyone had grown suspicious the third time they had found the two of them naked and asleep together), and when Allura had offered to have a go at it, Shiro had nicely but firmly insisted that the paladins would handle it.

So now, here they were, Keith and Lance facing off late at night in the training room.

Keith’s sword was drawn, the simulation had just powered down, and the red paladin’s black shirt clung to him with sweat. For a moment, Lance faltered. Keith used that moment to power down his sword and strip off his shirt.

“Keith,” Lance tried to sound commanding and calming all at once. His voice squeaked, slightly, when Keith turned towards him.

“I want to talk.”   
Keith arched an eyebrow, moving closer, attempting to back Lance up against the wall, but the blue paladin side-stepped, instead waving a bottle of sparkly red polish in Keith’s face.

“It’s your turn,” he sing-songed.

Keith kissed him instead of replying.

Lance sighed into his mouth, not a sexy, contented release, but a quick breath of exasperation. He pulled away, intertwining his hand with Keith’s.

“Don’t you just wanna sit?” Lance tried, but Keith was kissing a line down the taught skin of Lance’s  neck, and he could feel his willpower ebbing. So, he changed tactics, pushing Keith up against the wall, licking into his mouth, hot and needy. He let his hand trail up Keith’s chest, cupping at the back of his head. And just when Keith was fully distracted, knees growing weak, Lance wrapped himself fully around him and let his weight drop fully.

They went down in an awkward half-aroused pile of limbs, but Lance made sure he came out on top, gently perched on Keith’s chest, left hand clutched in his own. He opened the bottle of polish with his mouth and balanced it below him on Keith’s chest as well.

“So, tell me about the house.” He began to paint Keith’s nails.

And Keith, resigned and vaguely impressed, asked, “What house?”   
“The one you were living in, back on Earth. How’d you get it?”

And so Keith told him. 

They stayed in the training room for hours, long after the polish had dried, and just talked.

Keith really liked sex. He had always been a physical person, but he discovered a new kind of catharsis that could come for a late night conversation with a person that you truly, deeply trusted.

.

The Paladins started coming to training with bright nails and calm smiles, and Allura was reminded, not for the first time, that yes, Lance was loud and annoying and tried way too hard, but it was only because he held within him an ocean of excess love for every person that he met. He wanted them to be safe and happy, and she knew that being in space so far from home was difficult for them. She knew better than most (the echoes of her own lost planet still kept her awake at night). 

Maybe one day she would let Lance paint her nails. Perhaps he could capture the unique beauty of her favorite Altean flower on her nails. 

.

Lance would never tell the paladins this, but he had his own selfish reasons for painting their nails. Nothing quite dredged up the feeling of home and safety more than caring for other people. He had never felt more cradled in the warm embrace of the Sanchez family than when he was sitting on the family room floor, old Spanish soaps playing in the background as he painted his sister’s nails.

**Author's Note:**

> comments make the world go round :)
> 
> also come to talk to me about these space dorks at my tumblr: poeandfinndamneron.tumblr.com


End file.
